Replace Librarians With LibraryThing?
June 18th, 2007“Now, with a single click, users can access reviews, analysis, book information, and more. In addition, they can talk about the book with friends and other website participants, making the necessity of proximity a thing of the past for those looking to form book groups. The new services also seek to replace librarians. Along with Amazon’s backend for book recommendations, the two new services hope to provide suggestions to users on books they might like by utilizing the books they list in their profile. Do librarians know of every book you’ve liked and disliked? I doubt it.”
Oh yeah, I bet that’s exactly what Tm Spalding had in mind when he created it. 
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Posted in LibraryThing | | Top Of Page
June 19th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Yes, there was also mention of LibraryThing in Real Simple Magazine this month.
June 19th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
[...] why we still feel the need to debate the future of books - and of libraries. Steven Cohen from Library Stuff pointed me to an article by Zach Sims - titled Books? What Books? The article itself is fairly [...]
June 20th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Unless they also plan on putting the full text of the book online, which would violate copyright law, the need for a physical library that houses the book remains. Where there are libraries, there are librarians. Someone has to manage the collection.
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Actually, in my experience, the book group of the future will extend from bloggers indulging in reading challenges that allow the maximum flexibility for the user in terms of selection and time. There is a general theme assigned and a specific time frame (of usually a month or more). Participation and the level of participation in terms of the number of books read in that time frame make it possible for readers to come together and disperse without reference to a public institution (whether it be a library or LibraryThing).